The Future, in Focus

A chance to get behind the camera as soon as possible brought Robbinsville, N.J., resident J.T. Fetch ’12 back from the desert and into the TV studio at Rider.

Written By: Amber Cox '10

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

After spending one year at Arizona State University J.T. Fetch ’12, a Communications major, decided that he wanted to get-on hands experience with cameras quicker than ASU would have allowed.

“To be able to do stuff on camera, all of the stuff I’ve done at Rider, you have to take classes (at ASU), the on-camera stuff is a class and it’s a 400-level course,” Fetch said. “I just felt like I had to wait and I didn’t feel like waiting. So, I looked at Rider. It’s close to my home in Robbinsville. I grew up here; everything is smaller and I like it that way.”

Fetch said the TV Studio on Rider’s Lawrenceville campus allowed him to get hands-on experience that he might not have gotten otherwise, as well as the chance to compete in the National Broadcasting Society’s (NBS) National Undergraduate Student Electronic Media Competition. Fetch earned top honors for Rider Reel Time, in the Video Public Affairs/Interview Program category, and shared first place with Alyssa Wakefield ’12 and Kelly Sousa ’13 in the category of Video Magazine Program for Backstage Story.

“I’m really proud of the NBS awards and being able to bring those home for Rider,” Fetch said. “It was great because the things that were submitted and won were not for a class or anything, they were done for the TV Studio, which is all really extracurricular. Whoever wants to go the extra mile is welcome, too, and those are the ones who do things in the study. That’s one of the things that is great. It’s not only an award but an award for something I didn’t have to do.”

Fetch smiles wryly as he calls the people he’s met at the TV Studio his “dysfunctional little family,” who all want to be there.

During his time at Rider, Fetch held a number of internships with the Fox News Channel in New York, and is now completing his most recent one, which is mostly on-campus reporting so he doesn’t have to travel. The internships have given Fetch the opportunity to use camera equipment involved with news studios, which he realized are just like the ones on campus, but on a bigger scale.

Currently on the job hunt, Fetch recently traveled to New York to meet with an agent.

“It’s kind of exciting because I know what I’m going to be doing, but I don’t know where,” he said. “In this profession, you have to go to a small city somewhere, but there are a lot of possibilities. The Communication program at Rider has helped me realize that I really want the career I’ve chosen. I still get excited and I still feel rewarded from the things I do at Rider even though it may not get as much attention as the stuff I do for Fox, but I still get that same excitement and satisfaction from it. It really gives me the indication that I’ve chosen the right thing.”